# ExploreYC, free: People search API

> Ranked Y Combinator founder leaderboards — the people behind the companies.

ExploreYC's people search API on its Free plan. It costs $0.00 per 1,000 people. It returns none of the 13 key fields we check: Experience, Education, Skills, Headline and 9 more.
We rank 487 plans by price. [Coresignal's $49 monthly plan](https://datacircle.dev/people-search-apis/coresignal/49-monthly/llms.txt) costs the least per 1,000 people: as little as $0.0000038. Coresignal's $49 monthly plan covers up to 12,960,000 pages a month at no extra cost. Each page holds 1,000 people.
[PeopleSearch.im's $5 pack (/api/v1/search)](https://datacircle.dev/people-search-apis/peoplesearch-im/5-pack-starter-post-api-v1-search/llms.txt) covers any number of people. PeopleSearch.im's $5 pack costs less to start than Coresignal's $49 monthly plan.
[GetProspect](https://datacircle.dev/people-search-apis/getprospect/49-monthly-starter-post-v2-people-search-people-search/llms.txt), [QuickEnrich](https://datacircle.dev/people-search-apis/quickenrich/29-monthly-starter-post-api-employees-contact-finder/llms.txt) and [AnyAPI](https://datacircle.dev/people-search-apis/anyapi/top-up-from-10-manual-top-up-post-v1-run-people-search-quickenrich/llms.txt) are the best people search API providers in our benchmark.

- This page: https://datacircle.dev/people-search-apis/exploreyc/free
- [Best people search API in 2026](https://datacircle.dev/best-people-search-api.txt)
- Get it: https://exploreyc.com/api-docs
- Request: `GET https://api.exploreyc.com/api/v1/founders`
- API key: with the plan, on https://exploreyc.com/api-docs
- Its API docs: https://exploreyc.com/api-docs
- Sold by: ExploreYC (https://exploreyc.com)
- Checked: 2026-10-28

## In the answer

- Completeness: 0%

## Price

- $ per 1,000 people: $0.00
- Per: page of 100
- Billing: free

## Aggregators

- Aggregators: none

## Charges

- Also pays for: from the same budget: List / filter companies · Company by id · Company by slug · Full-text company search · Portfolio stats (Y Combinator) · Available sources (incubators / VCs) · Distinct YC batches · Distinct industries · Distinct countries · Geo-located companies · Batch 'wrapped' analytics · Founder profile + stats + companies

## Overage

- Units cap: hard

## Not found

- $ per 1,000: $0.00

## In their words

- Their pitch: Ranked Y Combinator founder leaderboards — the people behind the companies.

## Data

- Freshness: 1 day
- Keep data: no API terms
- Use data: no API terms

## Plan

- Pay: $0
- You get: 5 requests a day
- Enough for: 5 pages a day

## Rate limit

- Per day: 5
- Batch: 1

## Speed

- Answer: in the call

## The call

- You send: nothing required. Optional: metric, batch, limit, offset
- Method: GET
- Path: /founders

## About the plan

- Plan: Free
- Who can get it: anyone

## The 3 fields the plan's answer can hold

founder, derived stats, rank

## ExploreYC's plans (3)

- [ExploreYC, free](https://datacircle.dev/people-search-apis/exploreyc/free/llms.txt): $0.00 per 1,000, 0% complete, 1 day
- [ExploreYC, $50 monthly](https://datacircle.dev/people-search-apis/exploreyc/50-monthly/llms.txt): $0.033 per 1,000, 0% complete, 1 day
- [ExploreYC, $500 monthly](https://datacircle.dev/people-search-apis/exploreyc/500-monthly/llms.txt): $0.033 per 1,000, 0% complete, 1 day

## ExploreYC's calls for this API (1)

- `GET /founders`: [ExploreYC, free](https://datacircle.dev/people-search-apis/exploreyc/free/llms.txt)

## ExploreYC's APIs (4)

- [ExploreYC: people search API pricing, 3 plans](https://datacircle.dev/people-search-apis/exploreyc/free/llms.txt)
- [ExploreYC: people enrichment API pricing, 3 plans](https://datacircle.dev/person-enrichment-apis/exploreyc/free/llms.txt)
- [ExploreYC: company enrichment API pricing, 3 plans, GET /companies/{company_id}](https://datacircle.dev/company-enrichment-apis/exploreyc/free-get-companies-company-id/llms.txt)
- [ExploreYC: company enrichment API pricing, 3 plans, GET /companies/slug/{slug}](https://datacircle.dev/company-enrichment-apis/exploreyc/free-get-companies-slug-slug/llms.txt)
- [ExploreYC: company discovery API pricing, 3 plans, GET /search](https://datacircle.dev/company-discovery-apis/exploreyc/free-get-search/llms.txt)
- [ExploreYC: company discovery API pricing, 3 plans, GET /companies](https://datacircle.dev/company-discovery-apis/exploreyc/free-get-companies/llms.txt)

## ExploreYC: people search API alternatives

- [The Swarm, $96,000 yearly, Enterprise 20000, POST /v3/profiles/search](https://datacircle.dev/people-search-apis/the-swarm/96000-yearly-enterprise-20000-post-v3-profiles-search/llms.txt): $0.0031 per 1,000, 0% complete, 1 day
- [Pubrio, $495 pack](https://datacircle.dev/people-search-apis/pubrio/495-pack/llms.txt): $1.08 per 1,000, 31% complete, 1 day
- [Autobound, $40,000 pack, Enterprise credit pack, 11.5M credits, POST /v1/buyer-intent/contacts](https://datacircle.dev/people-search-apis/autobound/40000-pack-enterprise-credit-pack-11-5m-credits-post-v1-buyer-intent-contacts/llms.txt): $3.478 per 1,000, 38% complete, 1 day
- [NinjaPear, $22,788 yearly](https://datacircle.dev/people-search-apis/ninjapear/22788-yearly/llms.txt): $7.714 per 1,000, 8% complete, live

## Sources

From each provider's own pricing page and docs, and from what providers tell us. We read this row from these pages on 2026-10-28.

- https://api.exploreyc.com/api/v1/openapi.json
- https://exploreyc.com/api-docs
- https://exploreyc.com/llms.txt
- https://exploreyc.com/pricing